Why Change is Good; At least for Your Passwords
It almost seems that every website you visit today requires
you to register for access. It's great that the website is
free, but not another registration. Oh great, another username
and another password to remember.
If you're like most people, you use the same username and
password for all your website registrations and possibly even
for your email accounts. Most respectable websites have privacy
policies, as do most fraudulent ones. The validity of privacy
statements are only as honorable as the people behind the
websites.
Any dishonorable webmaster who collects usernames and passwords
from his visitors could have access to any other website you
have registered on or email accounts you use. There is absolutely
nothing keeping a dishonorable webmaster from testing the
password you provided in your registration against the email
address you use.
For example, let's say your email address is john_doe@hotmail.com.
You register on Free-Acme-Widgets.com that claims they are
giving away free widgets. After a few months, you realize
you never received your free widget, but during that time
you notice you're having problems with your email account
or totally lost access to it. Jack, who owns Free-Acme-Widgets.com
could have been a dishonorable person, noticed you used john_doe@hotmail.com
in your registration, went to hotmail.com and tried logging
into your account with the same password you used in the registration
for his website. If your password was the same, he now has
access to your email account and can either read your email,
use your account or steal it away from you.
So, how do you prevent this? Never, or rarely, use the same
password. I use one email account for most of my website registrations
and then change the email address in the account if I decide
I need the emails from that particular website. I also use
the same or similar password for website registrations that
I could care less if someone else gets in under my account.
Always keep your email and bank account passwords different
than any other passwords.
A good rule to follow is; if you don't want someone else
to access that account, use a different password than what
you've ever used on the net before.
About the Author:
David Vance may be contacted at http://www.DaveVance.com
. David A. Vance is the founder of YourStartingPoint.com and
CEO of ShotDrinks.com, Inc.
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